‘Britain’s Got Talent’ tops ‘Coronation Street,’ ‘Sherlock’ as top British broadcast of 2014

Maybe the market for TV is just not so oversaturated in Great Britain as it is in America, or maybe viewers really just like talent shows where the winner gets an opportunity to perform for the Queen at the Royal Variety. No matter how you choose to describe it, you cannot dispute that “Britain’s Got Talent” is a heck of a hit for ITV.

On Saturday, its premiere numbers were something that deserves a golden buzzer all its own. The show drew an audience of over 11 million viewers on average during the 75-minute premiere, which is the biggest overall crowd to a regular program in 2014 so far. This defeated “Coronation Street,” “Call the Midwife,” and “Sherlock,” which have all had episodes that brought in more than 9 million viewers.

Did Simon Cowell and company have a big advantage? We’re not going to dispute that. The show aired after a lengthy delay thanks to a football match, and there was probably a large amount of carryover just from viewers who didn’t bother to turn off their TVs right away. We’ll get a better chance next week to really see what the average viewership for the show really is.

The one thing this series really needs to move forward from here, though, is pure, undiscovered talent. Paddy & Nico were the big act at the end of the show, but after it aired it was revealed to us that they have actually won the Spanish version of the show already. It still doesn’t diminish that watching a senior citizen salsa is pretty incredible, but it’s hardly like this is setting the world ablaze with something that we have never seen before.

What did you watch on Saturday, and were you impressed by some of the ratings? Share your thoughts below, and head over here to get some TV updates via email courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter.